The Conjuring 3 Would Not Be a ‘Haunted House’ Movie

The Conjuring 3 may be moving away from the haunted house location that defined the first two entries, should it happen. When The Conjuring released back in 2013, it grossed $318 million at the box office and proved to be a success with critics thanks to director James Wan’s conveyance of tone and genuine scares. The Conjuring 2, however, did something rarely heard of in horror sequels by not only surpassing the worldwide gross of the first film with $320 million (albeit it had a slightly bigger budget), but proving to be almost as popular in terms of both fan and critical reception.

While The Conjuring 3 seemingly hasn’t entered development yet, Wan has said that it would ideally take place in the 1980s and it could involve werewolves. The director, who’s currently in the middle of filming Aquaman, has also speculated that he may not return to the director’s chair for the third installment. With this in mind, it’s very likely that the franchise’s producers and Warner Brothers see this as an opportunity to change the setting and story type as a way to reinvent the series, so that it doesn’t start to grow stale with audiences and critics alike.

While speaking with Cinema Blend, The Conjuring 3 producer Peter Safran believes it’s vital for the next film to go in a different direction and not just recreate the haunted house formula that the first two movies were primarily entrenched in. He also notes that there’s plenty of relatively unknown cases that the real Ed and Lorraine Warren (The Conjuring films are based on their supernatural investigations) were a part of that the series’ writers could easily pull from. Here is Safran’s full comment, regarding that topic:

“There are some [cases] that maybe aren’t as well known, but they spent a fair bit of time researching and were part of [them]. Clearly we can’t do another haunted house movie, right? We can’t do another supernatural possession in a house, with a family in peril. Right? So, it’s got to be something different than that, I think.”

It’s important to note that, based on both Safran and Wan’s past comments, The Conjuring 3 is not yet a sure-thing to happen. Moreover, if the threequel does move forward, the plan could change and it might turn out to be another haunted house movie, after all. With that in mind, it seems that most everyone currently tied to the franchise believes the third installment should try and go in a different direction, to better surprise and draw-in audiences.

Regardless, The Conjuring movies have already inspired multiple spinoffs, including next year’s The Nun (based around the demonic nun from The Conjuring 2) and this summer’s Annabelle followup, Annabelle: Creation. Whatever direction the main Conjuring installments end up going in from hereon out, it seems that the franchise as a whole will be exploring different avenues of horror, for the foreseeable future.